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[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Who Are You - School 2015" Episode 10

As was to be expected, So-yeong's plan to get back into everyone's good graces fails miserably. What So-yeong constantly fails to realize is that it's not circumstance which is causing her to be bullied- So-yeong's own attitude is what's causing the problem. And exposing the existence of Eun-bi does her no favors. To the contrary, up until now Eun-bi's strange behavior around So-yeong has made all the classmates suspicious. Now that So-yeong has provided an explanation, it's only that much more difficult for anyone to sympathize with her.

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But even with So-yeong's villainous aspirations apparently crushed for good, not all goes that well for our lead characters. I-an's motivation for helping Eun-bi at this point is ambiguous, and heavily wrapped up in his own feelings regarding Eun-byeol. So far his insistence of conflating Eun-bi and Eun-byeol as the same person has not resulted in any meaningful long-term consequences. It soon becomes clear, though, that I-an had to make a sacrifice for Eun-bi without even realizing it.

The bigger theming of "Who Are You - School 2015" regarding personal identity is mostly absent this episode, as the focus is instead on repercussions. It's something I rather like about the scripting- we, as in, the adults watching the drama, can easily see the lines between cause-and-effect. The high school students can't, which is why sentimental gestures don't smooth things over that well this time. Everyone has been forced, with some discomfort, to move on to the next stage of the plot.

Which means that yes, it would appear that we are finally going to get an explanation regarding what happened to Eun-byeol. In the context of this episode it's mostly just hints- some of which take on a rather perplexing shape. A few snippets of dialogue appear to imply that the entire dramatic storyline between Eun-bi and So-yeong was staged precisely to draw more attention to Eun-byeol's case- which comes off as just a tad convoluted.

Bear in mind that there's little sense in criticizing "Who Are You - School 2015" for being convoluted now- if we've already accepted the radical coincidence involved allowing Eun-bi to switch places with her twin, as well as So-yeong transferring to the exact same school, it's not too much more difficult to consider the possibility that this was all planned somehow. "Who Are You - School 2015" has consistently been a very solid production, enough to make me ignore some of the wackier parts of the scripting- and this episode is no different.

Review by William Schwartz

"Who Are You - School 2015" is directed by Baek Sang-hoon and Kim Seong-yoon, written by Kim Hyeon-jeong-II and Kim Min-jeong-II, and features Kim So-hyun, Nam Joo-hyuk, Yook Sung-jae, Lee Pil-mo, Lee David, Kim Hee-jung-I and more.

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